Cavallino Classic 2013 – Concours at The Breakers ( 37- 72)

Palm Beach, 26th of January

This year’s Cavallino Classic was held over the last weekend in January, the “main event” with the concours at the 5 star grand hotel on Saturday. More than 20 years ago the first meeting was organized by the American Ferrari magazine “Cavallino” during the sunny winter months in Florida, over the coming years it became established as one of the major events on the concours circuit, today being one of just 7 shows whose winner is eligible for the “Best of the Best” classic award by the luxury brand Louis Vuitton. Apart from being a social event for those who spend the winter in Palm Beach escaping the temperatures in the north, the Cavallino Classic is a must visit event for all those affiliated to the marque bearing the prancing horse logo, and more than a few make the long journey south, plus a number of visitors from Europe.

Early in the morning, soon after sunrise the first cars lined up in the driveway of the hotel, ready to enter onto the concours lawn (long before the visitors), to be prepared for the upcoming judging by the international jury. Many of the cars were driven in by the curators or restorers, rather than the owners, who joined in the proceedings later after breakfast, when the cars had been prepared, with the paint getting a last wipe, and the interior a final dusting.

The concours is basically divided into three different areas sorted by the age of the cars. The croquet lawn directly in front of the hotel is certainly the most interesting part of the show. This area is reserved for cars representing the early competition and GT history of Ferrari, at the time when the marque actively campaigned in the world sports car championship, and the street cars were still individually coachbuilt for their first owners.

When entering onto the croquet lawn, to the right there were three cars with early Belgian history imported by the late Jacques Swaters, national Ferrari importer and founder of the famous Ecurie Francochamps. Even more important, two of these cars even belonged to the Belgian Royal Family.

King Leopold III of Belgium, crowned in 1934, had been a passionate and sporting driver since his youth, and owned some spectacular cars over the years. Even after he lost his first wife in a road accident in Switzerland when he lost control of his car, he kept on buying sports cars including a Bugatti T59. This car had started life as a grand prix racer, before it was re-bodied for sports and street use, and sold to the king, finished in his favourite colour combination of black with a tan interior.

Soon after the war, Ferrari took over the role that Bugatti had enjoyed in sports car and grand prix racing, and so it is no surprise that this became the favourite marque of Leopold from that time. The first car associated with him was the Ferrari 342 America Cabriolet by Pinin Farina but equipped with a larger capacity 375 grand prix engine. He used this car for about 3 years before it was replaced by the 375 Plus seen in Palm Beach. When the King abdicated in 1951 he spent several months a year in Switzerland and for driving over the numerous alpine passes all of his cars were equipped with an altimeter, a special feature that is also found on the 375 Plus. The 375 followed the example of the Bugatti T59 that he owned, initially being designed as a pure race car, this model was successful as a works entry in 1954 both at Le Mans and the Carrera Panamericana. He was sold the last example built, chassis 0488AM, which was bodied by Pinin Farina as a one-off cabriolet, and delivered in 1955 by Garage Francorchamps in exchange for the 342 America Cabriolet. King Leopold kept this car for several years before he sold it to its second owner, and soon after it was acquired by its current owner, who has owned it for more than 40 years now. After a restoration in the early 1980s the interior was changed to green to suit the owners taste, and was featured in several books in this form. Unfortunately the car itself was rarely seen in public, but after a recent restoration by marque expert Motion Products Inc. (including re-trimming back to the original tan interior) the car made its first outing at last year’s Pebble Beach Concours where it won its class. More than a few rate this particular car at the top of the vintage Ferrari range, as it combines a successful race chassis that helped forming the myth of the marque on the track, with a very elegant one-off body by Pinin Farina plus a celebrity first owner, a combination hard to surpass. At the end of the day the judges came to the same conclusion, as this car did not just win its class again, but was also awarded Best of Show in the GT category.

Just to the right of the 375 Plus was the car of King Leopold’s second wife, Princess Liliane de Rethy. Unlike her husband’s racing chassis the Princess ordered a more conventional 250 Europa GT. However, it was not in the “ordinary” Pinin Farina Coupé style, but was also built as a one-off, this time from Carrozzeria Vignale. This coupé, chassis 0359 GT, with its white hardtop-like fixed roof giving the car a more compact appearance compared to the fastback lines of Pinin Farina’s design. The car was restored at the same shop and at the same time, so they do the concours circuit round together, reuniting the two cars over five decades after having shared the same garage. The trio of “Belgian” cars was completed by a 166 MM/53 (chassis 0300M). The car was delivered to its first Belgian owner with a Vignale Coupé body in 1953 but was soon after re-bodied by Oblin, a small coachbuilder located in Brussels. The tiny spider is finished in its period livery of matt black with a red centre line and rocker panel, just the way it was entered in various races in Belgium and France in period.

This year’s Cavallino Classic featured a number of examples from the 212 model range built as 212 Inter (odd chassis numbers indicating the intention of street usage) and the 212 Export (even numbers for race usage). No less than 5 examples where lined up on the upper lawn, with a further example in the Ferrari Classiche marquee sited further down in the vendor area. The oldest example was a 212 Export Spyder Vignale originally owned by Count Marzotto (chassis 0090E). This very elegant spider has been seen several times at The Breakers over the past few years, as it has its home just a few miles down the road in a collection in West Palm Beach. The car was joined by a 212 Export Touring Berlinetta (0108E) that had also been seen at Pebble Beach last year. The 212 Inter range was represented by no less than 3 coupés and a cabriolet. The first one was chassis 0163EL, a coupé by Vignale. The small passenger compartment with the pale accentuated roof gives the car a low silhouette compared to the prominent ornate chrome radiator grille, which was a Vignale styling feature of the time. This car had a long Portuguese history before spending almost two decades in Germany, and now it is in its new home in a prominent American collection. The second coupe was originally the 1952 Geneva Show car, chassis 0257 EU, and was the second Ferrari bodied with the later Vignale design, featuring bumperettes high on the front wings, and was exported new to the USA by Luigi Chinetti. Although it had never been to Portugal (as had the previous car), it is finished in the black and green colour combination similar to that used by the Portuguese taxis.

Also a show car back then, this time at the 1952 Paris Motor Show, the 212 Inter Cabriolet (0235 EU) was bodied by Pinin Farina, an early example very similar to the first car designed by the Turin designer, who would become the favourite stylist of the later Ferrari era. Although clearly intended for road use, with bumpers and nice chrome brightwork, the first owner took it to the 1000 km race at the Nürburgring, where it finished 9th overall. Since then it spent most of his life in the USA, when it was acquired by the current owner to be restored to former glory by Ferrari. The car has since been awarded with several concours prizes, and won an Excellence Cup for the best restoration in Palm Beach. The last of the 212 series was chassis 0239 EU, a 212 Europa Coupe Vignale. This car was used by its first owner to compete in the Carrera Panamericana in 1952 but an accident ended the race. The car was shipped back to the factory and the owner replaced it with a 250 MM. Today the car is finished in its 1952 Carrera Panamericana livery, including the characteristic colour scheme with the sponsor adverts and a sporting interior without door trim.

Every year at Palm Beach seems to be dominated by one model, two years ago no less than four 250 GT LWB California were lined up including two of the lightweight competition versions, last year four 250 GTO were lined up, and this year the 250 GT LWB TdF Berlinetta was prominent.

The long wheelbase competition version of the 250 series was built in 4 series distinguishable by the number of louvres behind the doors. The first series had no louvres and some were bodied by Zagato, followed by the 14 louvre version introduced at the end of 1956. But the design of the 14-louvre car had already been seen earlier that year on the 250 Europa GT, chassis 0425GT, the 1956 Geneva Show car, which could be classified as Tour de France prototype by Pinin Farina. This car is very interesting as it features some very unique details that never made it into the later cars by Scaglietti. The interior features double a curved dashboard that repeats the shape of the instrument nacelle in front of the steering wheel on the passenger side. Being a show car the car has some chroming on the exterior including a border around the grille with inset Ferrari badge, some refined handles both on the doors and the trunk, and indicators semi-recessed on the front wing sides. But most noticeable are the different rear fenders. Whereas the later 14-louvres are rounded at the front, 0425GT has a very angular shape and the fenders do not fall away to the rear. On the later versions the top of the fenders are slightly rounded as well but this car has a sharp edge resulting in the teardrop tail light surrounds. This car had previously been entered at last year’s Pebble Beach concours, but was not entirely finished in time, so it just did the tour but was not displayed on the lawn. At the Cavallino Classic the car was not only awarded with a platinum award, but also with the second Excellence Cup for its restoration, and the Elegance Cup for the finest coach built car.

The other three TdF were all of the last series with a single louvre. Especially the newest of them is worthy of mention, as this car (1321GT) was third overall at the 24h of Le Mans in 1959 just beaten by the two Aston Mastin DBR1 sports racing models, and winning the GT class in the process. This cover car of the December/January issue of Cavallino Magazine was seen on all four days of the meeting, as the owner raced it on both track days and displayed it on Sunday at Mar-a-Lago, earning him the “Spirit of Cavallino” trophy.

But this was certainly not the only competition car on display. Before the 250 GT was raced both in LWB and SWB configuration, the 250 MM was the car to have. The example on display, a PF Berlinetta (0258MM), competed in the 1953 edition of the Italian Mille Miglia long distance road race in the hands of its first owner, a gentlemen racer from Milan. The car ran in a few Mille Miglia Storico events about a decade ago, but it seems to need a little bit more sorting out at the moment, as it did not sound too great when fired up. After the 250 GT LWB the 250 GT SWB followed, the car on show (2083GT), an alloy competition version is also a regular entrant at the Cavallino Classic. Besides the normal SWB a few specials were built on the same chassis, one of them was on display, this being the 1961 250 GT Speciale (2429GT) with a body in the style of the 400 SuperAmerica. Besides the berlinetta versions of the 250 GT, there was also available in both chassis lengths a mechanically similar California Spider, and this year’s show featured an example of each version. Notably, the LWB (0919GT) example should be mentioned, as this car made its post restoration debut after not be seen for almost 4 decades. The car was shown on Thursday at the Jet Centre Reception were it was voted Best of Show by the attending visitors, on Saturday it was also awarded with a platinum award, and a special Judges Cup.

Centred on the croquet lawn were a 250 LM (5909) and a 500 TRC (0698MDTR). The 250 LM was originally delivered to Luigi Chinetti’s NART, and entered in the 1964 1000 km at the Nürburgring in the hands of Maglioli/Rindt, and a little later in the 24 hours of Le Mans with Jochen Rindt and David Piper driving, but it failed to finish on both occasions. The most successful race was the 12 hours of Reims were John Surtees partnered Lorenzo Bandini to come home 2nd. After that the car was sold and repainted, but today the car is presented in the livery of the race in Reims including the race number 8. One can see that this is a trend in recent years to restore race cars to the specification on their most successful races, to make them stand out in an already small production series. The 250 LM was awarded the Competizione Cup for the fastest race car on show.

The 500 TRC has some race history in the US and in South America and was first bought by the current owner in 1983. He entrusted a (then) very young David Carte with the restoration of the car, and during the awards ceremony he said that this was the first proper restoration that he undertook, which became the foundation of his current business. Later the car was sold, only to be bought back several years later, and the restoration was freshened up again by Carte. Today this car is in immaculate condition and won a platinum award as well as the 4 cylinder trophy (although without competition) and finally the Best of Show Competition Car award.

After the display of the vintage Ferraris of the coachbuilt era and the 250 series, the middle lawn is usually reserved for the later 275 and 330 series. A special feature this year was the display commemorating the late Sergio Pininfarina, with several significant designs. Most of these cars have been seen in previous years on the upper lawn, but it was nice to see again the 375 America originally owned by Gianni Agnelli (0355AL) with its very special design, plus another of his cars, the 410 SA (1517 SA), again with unique bodywork. Then there was the very original 375 MM Spider (0382AM) that won several prizes the year before, the light blue 375 America (0293AL) and a 500 Superfast (6043 SF). Certainly the entire middle and lower lawn areas, with the later series production cars can be seen as a display for Pininfarina as he became the designer for most of these models, with something for every taste ranging from the 246 GT Dino, the Daytonas (including two Spiders) to the 512 BB and Testarossa models, or a pair of GTOs (288) to an Enzo.

So when looking over the field, one can say that in earlier years especially the upper lawn had a few more cars on display and that several cars had already been seen in previous years, but one has to keep in mind that this was the 22nd edition, and it is impossible to get 20 “fresh” cars every year. The quality of the cars was outstanding, a fact that can be easily seen by the amount of platinum awards. With the ever increasing value of the cars of the Enzo Ferrari era, only a few cars are less than perfectly restored by marque specialists both in quality and originality, unfortunately some of the owners are afraid of “destroying” their platinum award winning finish by driving them, so many of these cars are not seen on road rallies or on the race track anymore (as can be seen at the smaller entry list compared to the previous track days). Several of these cars will be seen most likely at other concours events in the near future, others will again disappear for years until they have their next outing, maybe in new ownership and in case of the race cars, maybe in a new livery.

The Cavallino Classic is always worth the trip for all those aficionados of the prancing horse, and the warm sunny weather in Florida is another good reason to escape from the cold next January for the 23rd edition of the Ferrari meeting.

Early in the morning, soon after sunrise the first cars lined up in the driveway of the hotel, ready to enter onto the concours lawn (long before the visitors), to be prepared for the upcoming judging by the international jury. Many of the cars were driven in by the curators or restorers, rather than the owners, who joined in the proceedings later after breakfast, when the cars had been prepared, with the paint getting a last wipe, and the interior a final dusting.

The concours is basically divided into three different areas sorted by the age of the cars. The croquet lawn directly in front of the hotel is certainly the most interesting part of the show. This area is reserved for cars representing the early competition and GT history of Ferrari, at the time when the marque actively campaigned in the world sports car championship, and the street cars were still individually coachbuilt for their first owners.

When entering onto the croquet lawn, to the right there were three cars with early Belgian history imported by the late Jacques Swaters, national Ferrari importer and founder of the famous Ecurie Francochamps. Even more important, two of these cars even belonged to the Belgian Royal Family.

King Leopold III of Belgium, crowned in 1934, had been a passionate and sporting driver since his youth, and owned some spectacular cars over the years. Even after he lost his first wife in a road accident in Switzerland when he lost control of his car, he kept on buying sports cars including a Bugatti T59. This car had started life as a grand prix racer, before it was re-bodied for sports and street use, and sold to the king, finished in his favourite colour combination of black with a tan interior.

Soon after the war, Ferrari took over the role that Bugatti had enjoyed in sports car and grand prix racing, and so it is no surprise that this became the favourite marque of Leopold from that time. The first car associated with him was the Ferrari 342 America Cabriolet by Pinin Farina but equipped with a larger capacity 375 grand prix engine. He used this car for about 3 years before it was replaced by the 375 Plus seen in Palm Beach. When the King abdicated in 1951 he spent several months a year in Switzerland and for driving over the numerous alpine passes all of his cars were equipped with an altimeter, a special feature that is also found on the 375 Plus. The 375 followed the example of the Bugatti T59 that he owned, initially being designed as a pure race car, this model was successful as a works entry in 1954 both at Le Mans and the Carrera Panamericana. He was sold the last example built, chassis 0488AM, which was bodied by Pinin Farina as a one-off cabriolet, and delivered in 1955 by Garage Francorchamps in exchange for the 342 America Cabriolet. King Leopold kept this car for several years before he sold it to its second owner, and soon after it was acquired by its current owner, who has owned it for more than 40 years now. After a restoration in the early 1980s the interior was changed to green to suit the owners taste, and was featured in several books in this form. Unfortunately the car itself was rarely seen in public, but after a recent restoration by marque expert Motion Products Inc. (including re-trimming back to the original tan interior) the car made its first outing at last year’s Pebble Beach Concours where it won its class. More than a few rate this particular car at the top of the vintage Ferrari range, as it combines a successful race chassis that helped forming the myth of the marque on the track, with a very elegant one-off body by Pinin Farina plus a celebrity first owner, a combination hard to surpass. At the end of the day the judges came to the same conclusion, as this car did not just win its class again, but was also awarded Best of Show in the GT category.

Just to the right of the 375 Plus was the car of King Leopold’s second wife, Princess Liliane de Rethy. Unlike her husband’s racing chassis the Princess ordered a more conventional 250 Europa GT. However, it was not in the “ordinary” Pinin Farina Coupé style, but was also built as a one-off, this time from Carrozzeria Vignale. This coupé, chassis 0359 GT, with its white hardtop-like fixed roof giving the car a more compact appearance compared to the fastback lines of Pinin Farina’s design. The car was restored at the same shop and at the same time, so they do the concours circuit round together, reuniting the two cars over five decades after having shared the same garage. The trio of “Belgian” cars was completed by a 166 MM/53 (chassis 0300M). The car was delivered to its first Belgian owner with a Vignale Coupé body in 1953 but was soon after re-bodied by Oblin, a small coachbuilder located in Brussels. The tiny spider is finished in its period livery of matt black with a red centre line and rocker panel, just the way it was entered in various races in Belgium and France in period.

This year’s Cavallino Classic featured a number of examples from the 212 model range built as 212 Inter (odd chassis numbers indicating the intention of street usage) and the 212 Export (even numbers for race usage). No less than 5 examples where lined up on the upper lawn, with a further example in the Ferrari Classiche marquee sited further down in the vendor area. The oldest example was a 212 Export Spyder Vignale originally owned by Count Marzotto (chassis 0090E). This very elegant spider has been seen several times at The Breakers over the past few years, as it has its home just a few miles down the road in a collection in West Palm Beach. The car was joined by a 212 Export Touring Berlinetta (0108E) that had also been seen at Pebble Beach last year. The 212 Inter range was represented by no less than 3 coupés and a cabriolet. The first one was chassis 0163EL, a coupé by Vignale. The small passenger compartment with the pale accentuated roof gives the car a low silhouette compared to the prominent ornate chrome radiator grille, which was a Vignale styling feature of the time. This car had a long Portuguese history before spending almost two decades in Germany, and now it is in its new home in a prominent American collection. The second coupe was originally the 1952 Geneva Show car, chassis 0257 EU, and was the second Ferrari bodied with the later Vignale design, featuring bumperettes high on the front wings, and was exported new to the USA by Luigi Chinetti. Although it had never been to Portugal (as had the previous car), it is finished in the black and green colour combination similar to that used by the Portuguese taxis.

Also a show car back then, this time at the 1952 Paris Motor Show, the 212 Inter Cabriolet (0235 EU) was bodied by Pinin Farina, an early example very similar to the first car designed by the Turin designer, who would become the favourite stylist of the later Ferrari era. Although clearly intended for road use, with bumpers and nice chrome brightwork, the first owner took it to the 1000 km race at the Nürburgring, where it finished 9th overall. Since then it spent most of his life in the USA, when it was acquired by the current owner to be restored to former glory by Ferrari. The car has since been awarded with several concours prizes, and won an Excellence Cup for the best restoration in Palm Beach. The last of the 212 series was chassis 0239 EU, a 212 Europa Coupe Vignale. This car was used by its first owner to compete in the Carrera Panamericana in 1952 but an accident ended the race. The car was shipped back to the factory and the owner replaced it with a 250 MM. Today the car is finished in its 1952 Carrera Panamericana livery, including the characteristic colour scheme with the sponsor adverts and a sporting interior without door trim.

Every year at Palm Beach seems to be dominated by one model, two years ago no less than four 250 GT LWB California were lined up including two of the lightweight competition versions, last year four 250 GTO were lined up, and this year the 250 GT LWB TdF Berlinetta was prominent.

The long wheelbase competition version of the 250 series was built in 4 series distinguishable by the number of louvres behind the doors. The first series had no louvres and some were bodied by Zagato, followed by the 14 louvre version introduced at the end of 1956. But the design of the 14-louvre car had already been seen earlier that year on the 250 Europa GT, chassis 0425GT, the 1956 Geneva Show car, which could be classified as Tour de France prototype by Pinin Farina. This car is very interesting as it features some very unique details that never made it into the later cars by Scaglietti. The interior features double a curved dashboard that repeats the shape of the instrument nacelle in front of the steering wheel on the passenger side. Being a show car the car has some chroming on the exterior including a border around the grille with inset Ferrari badge, some refined handles both on the doors and the trunk, and indicators semi-recessed on the front wing sides. But most noticeable are the different rear fenders. Whereas the later 14-louvres are rounded at the front, 0425GT has a very angular shape and the fenders do not fall away to the rear. On the later versions the top of the fenders are slightly rounded as well but this car has a sharp edge resulting in the teardrop tail light surrounds. This car had previously been entered at last year’s Pebble Beach concours, but was not entirely finished in time, so it just did the tour but was not displayed on the lawn. At the Cavallino Classic the car was not only awarded with a platinum award, but also with the second Excellence Cup for its restoration, and the Elegance Cup for the finest coach built car.

The other three TdF were all of the last series with a single louvre. Especially the newest of them is worthy of mention, as this car (1321GT) was third overall at the 24h of Le Mans in 1959 just beaten by the two Aston Mastin DBR1 sports racing models, and winning the GT class in the process. This cover car of the December/January issue of Cavallino Magazine was seen on all four days of the meeting, as the owner raced it on both track days and displayed it on Sunday at Mar-a-Lago, earning him the “Spirit of Cavallino” trophy.

But this was certainly not the only competition car on display. Before the 250 GT was raced both in LWB and SWB configuration, the 250 MM was the car to have. The example on display, a PF Berlinetta (0258MM), competed in the 1953 edition of the Italian Mille Miglia long distance road race in the hands of its first owner, a gentlemen racer from Milan. The car ran in a few Mille Miglia Storico events about a decade ago, but it seems to need a little bit more sorting out at the moment, as it did not sound too great when fired up. After the 250 GT LWB the 250 GT SWB followed, the car on show (2083GT), an alloy competition version is also a regular entrant at the Cavallino Classic. Besides the normal SWB a few specials were built on the same chassis, one of them was on display, this being the 1961 250 GT Speciale (2429GT) with a body in the style of the 400 SuperAmerica. Besides the berlinetta versions of the 250 GT, there was also available in both chassis lengths a mechanically similar California Spider, and this year’s show featured an example of each version. Notably, the LWB (0919GT) example should be mentioned, as this car made its post restoration debut after not be seen for almost 4 decades. The car was shown on Thursday at the Jet Centre Reception were it was voted Best of Show by the attending visitors, on Saturday it was also awarded with a platinum award, and a special Judges Cup.

Centred on the croquet lawn were a 250 LM (5909) and a 500 TRC (0698MDTR). The 250 LM was originally delivered to Luigi Chinetti’s NART, and entered in the 1964 1000 km at the Nürburgring in the hands of Maglioli/Rindt, and a little later in the 24 hours of Le Mans with Jochen Rindt and David Piper driving, but it failed to finish on both occasions. The most successful race was the 12 hours of Reims were John Surtees partnered Lorenzo Bandini to come home 2nd. After that the car was sold and repainted, but today the car is presented in the livery of the race in Reims including the race number 8. One can see that this is a trend in recent years to restore race cars to the specification on their most successful races, to make them stand out in an already small production series. The 250 LM was awarded the Competizione Cup for the fastest race car on show.

The 500 TRC has some race history in the US and in South America and was first bought by the current owner in 1983. He entrusted a (then) very young David Carte with the restoration of the car, and during the awards ceremony he said that this was the first proper restoration that he undertook, which became the foundation of his current business. Later the car was sold, only to be bought back several years later, and the restoration was freshened up again by Carte. Today this car is in immaculate condition and won a platinum award as well as the 4 cylinder trophy (although without competition) and finally the Best of Show Competition Car award.

After the display of the vintage Ferraris of the coachbuilt era and the 250 series, the middle lawn is usually reserved for the later 275 and 330 series. A special feature this year was the display commemorating the late Sergio Pininfarina, with several significant designs. Most of these cars have been seen in previous years on the upper lawn, but it was nice to see again the 375 America originally owned by Gianni Agnelli (0355AL) with its very special design, plus another of his cars, the 410 SA (1517 SA), again with unique bodywork. Then there was the very original 375 MM Spider (0382AM) that won several prizes the year before, the light blue 375 America (0293AL) and a 500 Superfast (6043 SF). Certainly the entire middle and lower lawn areas, with the later series production cars can be seen as a display for Pininfarina as he became the designer for most of these models, with something for every taste ranging from the 246 GT Dino, the Daytonas (including two Spiders) to the 512 BB and Testarossa models, or a pair of GTOs (288) to an Enzo.

So when looking over the field, one can say that in earlier years especially the upper lawn had a few more cars on display and that several cars had already been seen in previous years, but one has to keep in mind that this was the 22nd edition, and it is impossible to get 20 “fresh” cars every year. The quality of the cars was outstanding, a fact that can be easily seen by the amount of platinum awards. With the ever increasing value of the cars of the Enzo Ferrari era, only a few cars are less than perfectly restored by marque specialists both in quality and originality, unfortunately some of the owners are afraid of “destroying” their platinum award winning finish by driving them, so many of these cars are not seen on road rallies or on the race track anymore (as can be seen at the smaller entry list compared to the previous track days). Several of these cars will be seen most likely at other concours events in the near future, others will again disappear for years until they have their next outing, maybe in new ownership and in case of the race cars, maybe in a new livery.

The Cavallino Classic is always worth the trip for all those aficionados of the prancing horse, and the warm sunny weather in Florida is another good reason to escape from the cold next January for the 23rd edition of the Ferrari meeting.

Text & images ... Peter Singhof www.ClassicCarPhotography.de